"The people process is more important than either the strategy or operations processes. After all, it's the people of an organization who make judgments about how markets are changing, create strategies based on those judgments, and translate the strategies into operational realities. To put it simply and starkly: If you don't get the people process right, you will never fulfill the potential of your business."
- Larry Bossidy, Execution. The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Creating a lasting competitive advantage in today's business environment is becoming ever more complex. Products are copied faster than ever. Innovative ideas proliferate from every corner of the globe. Industries that were formerly stable and mature are often turned on their head by innovative entrepreneurs with products that appears from nowhere.
The most important ingredient in creating lasting shareholder value for any Company is a high-performance workforce with the capacity to execute. The performance of your executives, middle-management, and line employees is the only advantage that can be sustained year-over-year.
In order to stay competitive a company must have motivated employees, and a management team that can lead those employees to higher levels of performance. Helping you create and sustain a high performance workforce is our mission. Noblemen Group's Advisory Services Practice provides you with the techniques, advice, coaching and support that you need to turn your workforce into a high output, execution-focused team.
Noblemen Group focuses its advisory services in several areas:
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Building An Accountable Culture. The recent scandals at Enron, Worldcom, and others have shattered the trust between employees, employers and stakeholders. Recreating a positive environment is critical if you are to create and sustain a high-performance organization. But getting there goes beyond just setting a mission statement, or complying with Sabanes-Oxley. Building accountability into your culture is the cornerstone to creating high performance. We will work with your senior management team to help them "walk the talk". We will help first and second line management to develop the skills to support accountability in front-line workers. We will build the skills of the line employee so that they understand what is required to thrive in an environment of personal responsibility.
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Executive Team Coaching. Creating high-performance in your organization starts out with the senior management team. We will work with your senior team (both collectively and individually) to create more effective communication, improve their ability to make and execute decisions, create appropriate accountability's within each team member, and educate the team in the techniques that promote performance throughout your organization.
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Merger Integration. One of the most troublesome aspects of realizing the value of a merger or acquisition is the integration of the two workforces. Often cultural differences, style differences, and structural problems sap the performance of the combined companies. Noblemen Group will work to ensure that the newly formed teams are properly managed and integrated, we will uncover underlying issues (and resolve them), and ensure that all employees are aligned around the same mission and objectives so that every employee is moving in the same direction.
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Recruitment and Retention. Part of the challenge of creating a high-performance organization is in determining your team's key players, finding ways to make sure that those players are in full support of the company's mission, and ensuring that retention packages (compensation, job assignments, etc.) are in place. We will help you put into place programs that will build the skills you need to execute your strategic objectives. If you are lacking in a key skill, we will assist you in going out into the market to find the appropriate player to fill that need.
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Individual Interventions. We've all seen the case where a company takes its finest engineer, place them into management, and then discovers that the skills that made them a great engineer are the opposite of the skills they need to be a great manager. Organizations often have talented players in the wrong positions, or have key players who have one or more deficiencies that get in the way of them being truly effective. We will work with these key individuals to help them determine their key strengths and weaknesses and then work with them to build on their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.
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Creating A Business-Focused Human Resources Department. Companies are beginning to realize that many human resources departments have been focused on transactions, policing, or policy management. While these activities are necessary, they are often of limited strategic value to the organization. Noblemen Group will work with your HR team to assist them in focusing on the key strategic needs of the Company, and assist them in finding ways to execute the non-strategic parts of HR more effectively.
- Rewards and Compensation. Despite managements desire that compensation alone can drive performance, how you reward people is still one important component to reinforce a high-performance workforce. Have you ever wondered why your recent self-directed work team initiative fizzled? Take a look at your review system - you may still be rewarding people for individual goals? Noblemen Group will help you shape reward systems that compliment your strategy rather than retard it.
It's not enough that your employees simply recite your vision. You must have a team that can take that vision, determine what steps are required to make the vision a reality, and then to diligently execute those steps.
Noblemen Group offers its clients a powerful advantage with strategic advisory consulting services delivered by a world-class, street-smart team of senior executives who have all “walked the walk.”
Strategic counsel can prove to be invaluable before, during and after any investment banking transaction. However, Noblemen Group’s strategic advisory services are not just limited to our investment banking clients. Noblemen Group can help with management challenges such as business development, information system integration, and human resource planning and integration.
Noblemen Group’s strategic advisory team is led by Noblemen Group founding partners, each with more than 20 years of experience in developing and expanding global businesses.
Our Founding Partners
David J. Ferran
Chief Executive Officer, Noblemen Group
Mr. Ferran’s hands-on experience as a Director, CEO and/or Division
President of both public and private global business operations, enables
him to counsel Noblemen Group members and clients with a unique and clear
understanding of the practical issues and complex challenges facing regional
and global business leaders in today’s volatile financial environment.
More about David Ferran
Michal A. Chick
Chief Operating Officer, Noblemen Group
President, Noblemen Strategic Advisory Services Division
Mr. Chick, whose background as a President, COO and senior executive brings
over 20 years of business development, product development and human capital
management experience to Noblemen Group’s Strategic Advisory practice.
His strategic and tactical expertise in integrating acquisitions and building
high performance management teams helps Noblemen Group clients build results-oriented
organizations that maximize operational results.
More about Michal Chick
Michael E. Bernhardt
Executive Vice President, Noblemen Group
President, Noblemen Communications Division
Mike Bernhardt brings more than 28 years of marketing and business development
experience to Noblemen Group advisory team. His experience includes
corporate business development, branding and image enhancement, and CxO-level
coaching on public appearance, public speaking and media interview techniques.
Bernhardt is well versed in all aspects of marketing and corporate communications
with hands-on experience from both private and public companies, advertising
agencies and public relations firms.
More about Michael Bernhardt
Noblemen Group offers world-class advice and counsel in the following areas:
- Negotiating and structuring international joint ventures
- Planning and executing acquisitions and divestitures
- Offensive and defensive business strategies
- Counsel and consulting to Boards of Directors
- Merger and acquisition integration
- Facilities consolidation and relocation
- Management development and coaching
- Recovering a failing acquisition integration
- Meltdowns / Turnarounds
For companies that have already started down the path of corporate change, Noblemen Group advisors can also step in and assist companies in crisis mode, those involved in turnarounds, organizations dealing with management meltdowns and failed or failing acquisitions. We’ll help you quickly assess the challenge and bring our experience to bear on maximizing the potential of an apparently chaotic and gloomy situation.
Text book approaches to international business development, typically written by academics with minimal real life experience, lack the dynamic creativity required to understand and capitalize on the nuances and subtleties of the specific international transaction at hand.
In the past, small- to mid-cap companies have often tried to tackle the challenge of international business development on their own. Unfortunately, many of these companies lack the contacts, management bandwidth and hands-on experience necessary to effectively develop and execute complex business development strategies, resulting in avoidable mistakes and missed opportunities.
To compensate, these companies may have turned to one of the big name business consulting firms, usually with unsatisfactory results. When small- and mid-cap companies turn to the well known, big name business consulting or investment banking firms, management is often disappointed by the staggering fees and the limited experience of the staff members assigned to their projects. This no longer has to be the case.
Noblemen Group has the experience to guide you through the most complicated business development activities.
Noblemen Group’s strategic advisory team members are all seasoned
veterans who have dealt with the “real life” issues of negotiating,
structuring, and ultimately making international joint ventures, strategic
alliances, acquisitions and divestitures succeed – to everyone’s
satisfaction.
By keeping overhead levels low and experience levels high, Noblemen Group offers superior service, lower prices and a level of sophistication
not typically available to companies in the $25-$350 million dollar size.
For more information on Noblemen Group, contact Michal Chick. mchick@noblemengroup.com